HELEN MARCOU

Co Owner, Bakehouse Studios

Helen & her partner Quincy McLean founded Bakehouse Studios, an icon in the Australian music scene over 26 years ago. Fusing art, music and a deep sense of community. Helen’s work at Bakehouse has nurtured and supported generations of musicians and artists.

In 2010, Helen and her partner formed grassroots activist group Save Live Australia’s Music (SLAM). SLAM galvanized 20,000 live music fans from across generations and genres to march and protest their right to experience and participate in live music. The rally was described as ‘The largest cultural rally in Australia’s history’.

Helen’s influential support and advocacy have fundamentally changed the relationship between the contemporary music industry and government in Victoria. The SLAM rally resonated as a true expression of a generational challenge to the impact of art and contemporary music within our culture.

In 2015, Helen called for and was instrumental in the formation of the Victorian Government’s ‘Sexual Assault and Harassment of Women in Licensed Venues Taskforce’.

In 2017, she was inducted to the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll.

Helen & her partner Quincy Mclean were the recipients of the 2014 Sidney Myer Performing Art’s facilitator’s prize. In 2010, they were awarded an Age/Music Victoria Outstanding Achievement Award for services to the Music Community, voted in the top 100 ‘Most Influential & Creative Melbournians’ and nominated for both ‘Male & Female’ of the year by Rolling Stone Magazine.